Valerie Martinez

Born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Valerie Martinez currently serves as the city's poet laureate. She has a BA in English from Vassar College and an MFA in poetry from the University of Arizona. In her second book of poems, World to World, published in 2004 by the University of Arizona press, Martinez "explores the dynamic of creation/dissolution in original and intriguing ways." Her poem "Bowl" examines the Blakean notion of "a world in a grain of sand," as she invokes a single bowl big enough for all the cosmos. Martinez's translation of the poetry of Uruguayan poet Delmira Agustini (1886-1914), A Flock of Scarlet Doves, was published in a special edition by Sutton Hoo Press in 2005. She is currently at work on Each and Her, a book-length poem, and is an associate professor of English and creative writing and director of interdisciplinary studies at the College of Santa Fe. This animation was created by Joseph Kuenzle, and Martinez reads.

To read this and other poems by Valerie Martinez, as well as biographical information about the poet, please visit the Poetry Foundation Web site.